The Omiti Biochar Product Line

The Omiti Biochar line comprises two products:

PURE BIOCHAR

Our Omiti Biochar is a carbon-rich and porous material made from woody biomass, which can be used for a wide range of applications, such as:

• Agricultural use
• Mining reclamation
• Livestock farming

INOCULATED BIOCHAR

Omiti Inoculated Biochar has been pre-loaded with a mixed culture of naturally occurring beneficial bacteria, yeasts, and fungi. This way we fill the pore spaces of the biochar with the necessary natural ingredients so that it becomes a self-replenishing source accelerating soil recovery and soil health from day one.

By Using Inoculated Biochar, You Will Have the Following Speedy Results:

• Improve the condition and structure of the soil.
• Increase its fertility and radically improve biological diversity.
• Fix the nitrogen in soil and enhances nutrient uptake.
• Decrease water irrigation needs.
• Accelerate the decomposition of organic waste, residues, and composting. 
• Promote growth, flowering, fruit development, and ripening in crops.
• Enhance the activities of indigenous microorganisms.
• Boost the strength of plants and yield of crops.

In spite of the application of mulches, composts, and manures to soil and their positive effects in enhancing soil fertility, these organic matter are usually mineralized very rapidly under warm or tropical conditions.

Biochar is a vital tool in soil health management that increases total soil carbon and various soil functions. Particularly for eroded or otherwise degraded soils, biochar can improve soil health, crop yield, and crop resilience.

Documented benefits of using biochar in agriculture include:

• An Improvement in Soil Fertility

Biochar improves soil health and fertility by retaining nutrients in the soil. The presence of biochar also helps beneficial microbes flourish which is due to its uniquely porous structure which provides the microbes an ideal habitat. The soil has then the ability to become again a living ecosystem teaming with microbial life instead of dead soil.

• An Improvement in Crop Yields

Biochar has the capability to store nutrients, meaning they are available to plants when they need them. This is one reason why soil containing biochar is more nutrient-rich, as it has lower rates of nutrient depletion during the growing season. At harvest time, this results in higher plant density and crop yields.

• An Improvement in Water Retention

Biochar’s porous structure means it retains water and so improves the soil’s ability to hold moisture. As a result, it can keep beneficial soil microbes and fungi alive during long hot summers. It also helps with drainage. Its porosity means it acts like millions of tiny sponges in the soil, holding onto any excess water. The soil can later benefit from this stored water when it has dried out. Results from studies show a 37,9% reduction in the amount of irrigation water needed after the application of biochar.

• A Decrease in Soil Acidity

Soil’s ideal pH value is between 5.5 and 7 as that is the range in which the beneficial microbes that change and release nitrogen from fertilisers best operate. Biochar‘s specific properties reduce soil acidity through its alkaline nature and high buffer capacity.

• An Increase in Plant Disease Resistance

By improving soil properties, biochar becomes even more effective at controlling pathogens. In certain studies biochar showed suppression efficiencies of 86% for fungi, 100% for oomycetes, 100% for viruses, 96% for bacteria, and 50% for nematodes.

• An Increase in Soil Remediation

When producing biochar, the pyrolysis process changes the carbon element from long chains into stable carbon rings. These carbon rings then have a negative electrical charge which interacts with the positive charge from many contaminants. The difference in electrical charges causes the contaminants to be trapped within the biochar and prevents them from polluting the soil or seeping into groundwater.

Topsoil Is the Key to Successful Restoration.

Biochar is a natural soil enhancer made from the carbonization of organic materials. Adding biochar to the soil is one of the best practices to overcome any organic stress in the soil and to increase agricultural productivity. Biochar is a long-term solution persisting in the soil even under warm conditions, allowing the soil to retain nutrients and water.

Due to its long storage during mineral exploitation, the physical, chemical and biological properties of the topsoil are compromised by the time it gets to the rehabilitation stage. This results in soil nutrient depletion, soil degradation, lack of topsoil, and reduced natural regeneration. It is therefore important to amend disturbed mine soils to provide alternative topsoil substitutes as well as improve the health of stockpiled topsoil for successful mine rehabilitation and reclamation.

The establishment of a healthy vegetative cover and soil conditions that allow for natural vegetative successional processes is a key element to prevent the export of contaminated soils from mine sites. Enhanced reclamation techniques using soil amendments can achieve significantly better vegetation establishment results.

Biochar, as a purpose-made material, is a novel component of soil amendments. Given its general characteristics of high porosity, high fixed carbon content and low density, biochar for application to mining-affected soils has demonstrated benefits. In mined land rehabilitation biochar benefits the topsoil, and the topsoil then has the ability again to play a very important role not only as a growth medium but also as a bank for numerous indigenous plant seeds.

Biochar applications reduce the soil bulk density by 3%–31%, increase the porosity by 14%–64%, pH 1.4–2.5 times and aggregates stability by 3%–226% along with improvements of plant nutrient (NPK).

Field study results show biochar soil amendment increased vegetation cover on acid-affected soils by 240% and increased water holding capacity in all soils by 90% - 180%.

Benefits of using Biochar for Mine Rehabilitation:

• You will have a very effective and low-priced solution for mine rehabilitation and reclamation.
• You will help in increasing Namibia’s biodiversity.
• You will help Namibia with its encroacher bush problem.
• You will support employment from local communities.
• You will support a Proudly Namibian product.